Titanium Bridge Pins

To purchase a set, click here.

In the summer of 2009, I had a tech representative of Tisonix call me and request a meeting at my shop to show me the benefits of Titanium for musical instruments. Now, by nature, I am a skeptic about such things. In my 40-plus years of being involved with guitars in every conceivable capacity, I have seen lots of gimmicks, inflated claims, snake-oil sales pitches and plain old nonsense relating to guitar sound. Here was just another case of inflated claims I thought. But what could it hurt, I reasoned, to hear his sales pitch? Besides, I wasn’t driving to his shop—he was driving to mine.

The stark fact is that so much about guitar tone is ultimately subjective and easily influenced by expectations and the received “wisdom” of the crowd.

The Tisonix Tech would soon be arriving with his titanium bridge pins for us to install on one of my guitars and Bob Neff and I had a plan.

First of all, we agreed that we absolutely would not openly discuss our appraisal while the other guy was forming his. We wanted to feel completely free and unconstrained to come up with an independent scrutiny.

Secondly, we were both going to be brutally honest. This was the hardest part for both of us. I consider it one of the worst human traits to cavalierly embarrass others. The Tech had driven a ways to see us with his titanium pins, clearly believing we would like them. But what if we didn’t? Or didn’t think they made any difference? It would be tough and awkward to tell him so. But all the same, we were prepared to say what we really thought. We would couch it in respectful language of course. But at the end of the day, it is what it is.

So we put the new Nightingale with the ebony bridge pins on the bench and carefully listened, taking mental and silent notes. Then we switched out the pins with the titanium and listened again, then back to the original pins; then once again on with the titanium.

Now there are a bewildering array of components to the structure of a note; lots of different things to assess. Out of the many things, I believed two things. First of all, the decay of the note was changed, and for the better. Instead of the normal precipitous decline in the strength of the note after it was plucked, there was a steadier sustain and the decay was delayed until a whisper later. Second of all, the sustain was just longer. Not enormously longer, but longer slightly.

Now came the test—what did Bob think? Bob is actually more skeptical than I (if possible) and would certainly throw cold water on the thing if he thought there was no difference. Bob had been a tremendous by-ear piano tuner for many years and has preternaturally acute and disciplined hearing.  But there it was. He came to the exact same conclusion I did, independently. Slower decay and longer sustain. And that is our story and we’re sticking to it. We didn’t expect to find what we found.

Now that we have been sending them all over the world, we are getting wonderful reviews from folks as they find even more nuances in the pleasant tonal change with these titanium pins. Several folks are also finding a lovely shimmer on the top end of the notes as well. (I am told that one of the characteristics of this amazing material is its incredible sound transmission property).

Well, I was sold on the spot. So was Bob. The only thing that remained to discuss was the design—neither Bob nor I were particularly taken with the shape of the pin. It was fine but I wanted something different. And besides, I like putting my own artistic varnish on things. So I asked the Tech if they would be willing to make them to my own proprietary design and specs. They were, so I came up with a design that I liked more, sent them the CAD file and they did a masterful job. We have a two-tone plasma coating on the head that approximates a black chrome finish, a recess that further reduces weight (and also accommodates a 4mm shell dot inlay if desired) and a low-profile head that is very pleasing to the eye. Without the shell inlay, they have a hi-tech appearance I really like. And with the shell dot (paua, Mother-of-Pearl, black Tahitian pearl, green sea snail, etc.) they have a lovely and unique look.

Will these pins magically transform your guitar? No, that would be overselling them. Will they incrementally improve it? I believe they will.  If you don’t think so, you certainly can send them back and we’ll still be friends. When the dust settles, there is no One Thing that makes a guitar sound like it does. It is an accumulation of many little things designed and done well. These pins are, for me, one more little accumulation in a direction I happen to like.

Note: these Titanium Bridge Pins will retrofit to any Ryan guitar with ebony pins. They are designed with a taper that is an industry standard. They should fit most modern bridges of other makes. I will be compiling a list of guitars that they will retrofit with no modification of the bridge. If they fit your guitar, I would appreciate hearing about it so I can include that model and make on the list. For other guitars that do not accommodate these pins, in almost all cases a slight mod to the bridge will do the trick.

To purchase these Custom Titanium Bridge Pins, please click here.

Kevin Ryan
Westminster, California